Thai prawns sold in UK supermarkets were exposed as coming from companies using slave labour. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA
An international workers’ union has declared the Thai government to be “on trial” in an impending defamation case against a British human rights defender who exposed alleged modern-day slavery in its canned fruit and fishing industry.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has demanded that all charges against Andy Hall, 33, be dropped immediately, and described the trial – due in September – as “a national and international embarrassment”.

Thailand’s Natural Fruit Company filed civil and criminal cases against Hall earlier this year after he exposed alleged labour and human rights abuses, including violence against employees, forced overtime, the use of underage labour and the confiscation of passports of Burmese migrant workers.

He published his findings in a report called “Cheap has a high price” for the Finnish NGO Finnwatch in January last year and was hit with the libel suit one month later.

In May, separate defamation charges were filed by the same company over an Al-Jazeera interview about migrant workers’ rights. Hall faces up to £5.8m in damages and a two-year prison sentence if found guilty.

The Thai government has defended the Natural Fruit Company and its case, saying the firm had a right to sue Hall and that he was allowed to defend himself under Thai law, according to FreshFruitPortal.com.

In a statement, the Royal Thai Embassy in London said it had “full confidence” in Thailand’s judicial system.

A government inspection of the company premises reportedly took place a week after Hall’s report was published. No instances of child labour were said to be uncovered. Finnwatch defended its research findings and wrote in a letter to the Thai ambassador to the UK, Pasan Tepara: “Thai officials’ report states that there are undocumented workers working at the factory. According to Thai legislation, hiring undocumented migrants is illegal.”

ITF’s acting general secretary, Steve Cotton, said Hall should be “praised, not prosecuted” for his exposé on working conditions in the fruit company and added: “Thailand’s attorney general must act now to disallow this case, which is an example of blatant victimisation of someone for no greater crime than telling an unacceptable truth.”

ITF president Paddy Crumlin added: “Thailand itself is on trial. If ever a country needed to allow defenders of human rights to identify problems, it’s this one.”

Thailand was recently downgraded to the lowest ranking on the US government’s human trafficking index for alleged rampant abuses in various industries including the fishing, construction and canning sectors.

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Bangkok South Criminal Court Conviction Appeals Ruling

Appeal Verdict to be IssuedMay 31st, 2018

Bangkok South Criminal Court will read the adjourned ruling of the Appeals Court on the appeal of Andy Hall and Natural Fruit against Andy Hall’s conviction and sentencing in a criminal defamation and computer crimes case filed against Hall by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. executives in response to the publication of the Finnwatch report in 2013. An arrest warrant has been issued for Hall to attend the verdict after he failed to attend the Court on the previous appointed verdict date on 24th April 2018

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Andy Hall has set up a YouCaring crowdfunding site to receive donations to fund his professional team of lawyers (and support other related case costs) to defend himself in the ongoing and unrelenting judicial harassment being waged against him by just a few irrational and vindictive companies in Thailand. See https://www.youcaring.com/andyhall-1151843 and you can donate there.